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Toronto and the Grey Cup have a long, proud tradition. The first game ever, in 1909, was played at long-gone Rosedale Field. There have been 44 more since - at old Varsity Stadium, Exhibition Stadium and the SkyDome/Rogers Centre.

Toronto and the Grey Cup have a long, proud tradition. The first game ever, in 1909, was played at long-gone Rosedale Field. There have been 44 more since - at old Varsity Stadium, Exhibition Stadium and the SkyDome/Rogers Centre. Each game had its own drama and left behind special memories. The games themselves, in some cases, have been overshadowed by larger factors, including the most Canadian of all: the weather.

The first Grey Cup, played at Rosedale Field in Toronto, was front page news in the Toronto Daily Star on Dec. 6, 1909. The newspaper, which sold for a penny, ran a smudgy front-page action photo with the caption: "How Parkdale got Lawson up in the air: Cromar and Brady throwing the Varsity half-back into touch when he tried one of his hurdle plays."

Other front page headlines that day included: "Electric Light Co. is using a steam plant," "U.S. Marines heading for Nicaragua," and "Chickens in crates packed like sardines."

The full game report, run on an inside page, was under a headline that read: "Parkdale gave Varsity an interesting argument." While that might have been more suggestive of a debate than a football game, the University of Toronto's 26-6 win over Parkdale was a hard-fought affair, the crowd of some 4,000 well entertained, generating gross revenues of $2,616.40. (An earlier, semi-final elimination game, Varsity vs. Ottawa Rough Riders, had drawn 11,000-plus to Rosedale, which had a stated capacity of only 3,400.)

"The crowd enjoyed the match exceedingly," the Star reported, "and the Parkdale team were given an ovation at half-time for their fine showing. Most of the people present expected the collegians to `eat `em up' and at half-time there was some anxiety in the Varsity camp as to the final outcome. However, in the second half the powerful Varsity machine worked irresistibly and gradually forced up the score."

The game report shared the page with other sporting news of the day: The start of the annual six-day bicycle race at Madison Square Garden in New York; Buffalo's weekend defeat of Toronto in a team bowling event; results of "an Irish-Canadian boxing tourney" at the Mutual Street Rink; and announcement from Paris of the matchup of "American negro heavyweights" Sam McVey and Joe Jeannette.

Advertisements on the page included several for cigars and cigarettes and beer. One warned readers: "Beer, not properly aged – `green' – will make you bilious." Another challenged: "Take any Virginia cigarette, at any price, and light it, at the same time lighting a Black Cat. Smoke from each alternately, and pass the smoke through the nose. You will immediately note the difference. 10 for 10 cents."

Rosedale Field is long gone, but there is a memorial plaque at the location, now site of quiet and leafy Rosedale Park, in the heart of the upscale neighbourhood west of Mt Pleasant Rd., south of St. Clair Ave.

1915‘Kill the ref!’?

Football can be a tough sport. So, too, its fans.

In 1915, all hell threatened to break loose after the Toronto Rugby and Athletic Association team lost in the Grey Cup final at Varsity Stadium, 13-7, to the Hamilton Tigers.

At the final whistle, fans stormed the field yelling "Get Dixon," with reference to referee Reddy (Ewart) Dixon, a former University of Toronto star player who had made some controversial calls. He flashed some of his old speed, sprinting for cover. "He hid out in the Toronto dressing room and didn't emerge until the crowd got tired of waiting for him, and left," writes Gord Walker in the book Grey Cup Tradition.

"There was tragic footnote to the season as well. Argonaut star Glad Murphy, who had scored the team's first-ever Grey Cup touchdown – in the 1914 win over Varsity – suffered a broken neck in a game against Hamilton on Oct. 9. He subsequently died from the injury."

The next year, 1922, Alan Arless of the Montreal Winged Wheelers broke his neck in a game against the Argos and died later the same day. Imagine the uproar if such a thing were to happen today.

What a performance. What Alvin (Red) Storey did for the Argonauts against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the '38 championship has long been called "the greatest one-man show in Cup history."

An all-around great athlete, but a second-stringer on this talented Argonauts team, Storey hardly played until entering the game late with his team down 7-6.

Playing both offence and defence, Storey scored three touchdowns in less than 12 minutes and also threw in a non-scoring 102-yard run in Toronto's 30-7 victory before a then-record crowd at Varsity Stadium of 18,778.

His play overshadowed that of his more celebrated teammates, including the three Stukus brothers, who had earlier that season each scored a touchdown in the same game: Bill Stukus passed to Annis Stukus for a TD; Annis Stukus passed to Frank Stukus for a TD; and, Bill Stukus scored a pair on his own.

As the story goes, Storey was carried off the field on his teammates shoulders but still had to hitchhike home. He would, however, go on to a lengthy career as an outstanding referee in the National Hockey League.

1950Mud Bowl

It snowed heavily the night before the big game in 1950, then thawed that morning, leaving the Varsity Stadium field a mucky mess. A truck that had been used to help clear the snow got mired down, leaving ruts behind and there were potholes and puddles everywhere.

One of the enduring legends of the game involves Winnipeg lineman Buddy Tinsley getting knocked out during play and lying face down in a puddle of muddy water.

Referee Hec Crighton, it is said, probably saved him from drowning by dragging him out of the danger. Tinsley subsequently laughed it all off, saying he'd never lost consciousness.

The game was filled with errors and the Argos beat Winnipeg 13-0 thanks in part to the fact that quarterback Al Dekdebrun handled the muddy football better than his counterpart, Jack Jacobs. Later he would say that was in part thanks to having taped filed-down thumb tacks to the fingers of his passing hand to help grip the ball better.

1957‘Have a nice trip?’

Hamilton's Ray (Bibbles) Bawel intercepted a Winnipeg pass and was racing down the sideline toward paydirt, Blue Bombers in hot pursuit, when a foot came out of the crowd near the Bombers bench at Varsity Stadium and tripped him.

Who? What? How?

The culprit was a spectator, Dave Humphrey, who would go on to become well known, in addition, as a Toronto lawyer.

Bawel was brought down at the 42. The referee ruled the ball would be placed half the distance to the goal line. In any case – good thing the score wasn't close – Hamilton won the game, 32-7.

1962Fog Bowl

It was a gorgeous, warm December day when the 1962 Cup game got underway at Exhibition Stadium. Too warm, in fact.

The unseasonable weather meant that there were banks of fog rolling in off the cold waters of Lake Ontario into the lake-side stadium, even though a few hundred metres farther inland there were no visibility problems at all. So much fog, in fact, that the Saturday game had to be suspended with less than 10 minutes to play and Winnipeg leading Hamilton 28-27.

Resuming play the next day, the Blue Bombers held on to win by the same score.

Legendary newspaper columnist Jim Coleman wrote: "After football's longest-recorded huddle – 21 hours and 30 minutes – the Tiger-Cats had decided to open with a play which flopped lamentably.

The lakeside location of Exhibition Stadium was again a factor in ’65, when wildly gusting winds played a crucial role in the outcome of the game between Hamilton and Winnipeg.

The Ottawa vs. Saskatchewan final played at Exhibition Stadium is remembered for the winning touchdown, a toss by Tom Clements to Tony Gabriel with 20 seconds to play, giving the two-word Riders a 23-20 win over the one-word version.

It also happened to be the CFL’s first million-dollar gate, on an attendance of 53,467 — $1,008,418 to be exact.

Response for the last Cup in Toronto, the 45th here, was not overwhelming — there were 45,863 in SkyDome for Calgary’s win over Winnipeg, but the city itself seemed uninvolved.

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